Congress, allies to approach Mahajan for immediate decision on Leader of Opposition

New Delhi: The Congress, which is firm on its position of demanding Leader of Opposition (LoP) post in the Lok Sabha, will along with its allies give in writing to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for an immediate decision on the issue.

“If the constitutional needs have to be fully met then a response should be there and the UPA is a pre-poll alliance. The UPA together has more than the adequate numbers,” Congress leader Anand Sharma told an English news channel.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had earlier in the day said that her party should get the Leader of Opposition (LoP) post in Lok Sabha.

“We should get the Leader of Opposition post. If we don’t get, we will see. We are the single largest party and we have a pre-poll alliance. Hence, we are entitled to get the post of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha,” Sonia said.

Sonia's remarks on the issue came just a day after senior Congress leader Kamal Nath said that the party should approach the court if Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘influences’ the Lok Sabha Speaker on the issue.

Insisting that there is no rule, which says that a party cannot get Leader of Opposition status unless it has 10 percent of the total strength of the 543-member Lok Sabha, the former parliamentary affairs minister said while a Speaker is generally neutral when it comes to dealing with the parliamentary processes, it may be different in a contentious situation.

He, however, said that the Congress won't retaliate or disrupt the parliamentary proceedings.

The Congress, which conceded defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, is 10 short of the required number to sit in the Opposition.